Avi K: “Lilmod, you are absolutely wrong. “Dati” is used for someone who is considered (some people talk the talk but in private don’t walk the walk but that is true across the board) a member of the non-Chareidi (or Chareidi Leumi – Chardal) religious public.”
Chardal call themselves Chareidi Leumi, not dati. That is precisely my point. They are calling themselves Chareidi and Leumi – Chareidi describes their religious level and Leumi describes their hashkafa.
ZD: “Most chilonim know the difference between Dati Leumi and Charedim”
If you stick in the word “Leumi” you are describing your hashkafa, and not necessarily your religious level. But if you say “I am Dati (using the word Dati by itself) not Chareidi”, then you are saying that you are less Frum. Hence, my statement that there is no word for fully Frum other than Chareidi.
The word “Dati” is not used by itself to mean fully Frum (or at least rarely), to the best of my knowledge.
One point that may be important to mention here, since this may be where some of the confusion lies. Since Dati means religious, it can include anyone at various levels of religion (although there would have to be a certain minimum), so the term can be used to include Chareidim as well. It’s like saying that if you have two candies, you must also have one candy. Most people who have two candies wouldn’t say that they have one candy, but it can be done. Same here. Technically, someone who is Chareidi could be called Dati but it isn’t normally done. (I suppose it would depend on the context of the conversation). Normally, you would at least add the word Chazak, if not Chareidi.